How Switzerland became known as the land of chocolate

Published on January 7, 2026

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Swiss chocolate is part of the country’s identity. But its global success owes as much to clever marketing as to taste and quality. In a new non-fiction book, Dominik Flammer examines how the myth of Swiss chocolate was created. Alpine dairy maids against a mountain backdrop, cows grazing on lush pastures, and St Bernard dogs with chocolate around their necks: from the 19th century onwards, Swiss chocolate manufacturers used idyllic Alpine imagery to promote their products. First at home, then worldwide. The Neuchâtel-based chocolate maker Philippe Suchard was a pioneer of this approach. According to Flammer, he likely brought these marketing ideas back from trips to the United States. “Suchard distributed his posters internationally. His advertisements travelled through European cities on thousands of trams,” Flammer explains. In doing so, he created a powerful selling point: chocolate made with milk from pure Alpine environments. The target audience: women, children and soldiers ... Full story here Are you the author?

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SWI swissinfo.ch – the international service of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC). Since 1999, swissinfo.ch has fulfilled the federal government’s mandate to distribute information about Switzerland internationally, supplementing the online offerings of the radio and television stations of the SBC. Today, the international service is directed above all at an international audience interested in Switzerland, as well as at Swiss citizens living abroad.

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